Collegiate Archives | American Marketing Association https://www.ama.org/topics/collegiate/ Answers into Action Wed, 10 Jul 2024 15:04:12 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 https://www.ama.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/cropped-android-chrome-256x256.png?fit=32%2C32 Collegiate Archives | American Marketing Association https://www.ama.org/topics/collegiate/ 32 32 158097978 Find the Power of Flexible Thinking & Advertising at Regis https://www.ama.org/2022/12/02/find-the-power-of-flexible-thinking-advertising-at-regis/ Fri, 02 Dec 2022 16:15:33 +0000 https://www.ama.org/?p=111521 Alumni Ryan Boh credits his Regis University education with setting him up for professional success. BUILDING CAREERS AND COMMUNITY “Every day is different.” That’s how Ryan Boh describes his work for Oracle, where his current title is Head of Activation & Identity Product Strategy. He’s in an industry that changes every day, in a volatile […]

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Alumni Ryan Boh credits his Regis University education with setting him up for professional success.

BUILDING CAREERS AND COMMUNITY

“Every day is different.” That’s how Ryan Boh describes his work for Oracle, where his current title is Head of Activation & Identity Product Strategy. He’s in an industry that changes every day, in a volatile technological and regulatory environment. As he rubs shoulders with top executive leaders and finds ways to solve changing problems, Ryan credits his Regis University education — Master of Science in Marketing, class of 2019 — with setting him up for success.

HOW PROFESSORS MADE THE PROGRAM CAREER-ORIENTED

“At the time I was at a massive global advertising agency, working with a lot of data and technology. There were classes at Regis that were oriented for those types of activities. The classes themselves, the basic curriculum, was a little more general than what I needed, but I had professors who were eager and willing to make the classes more challenging, which I was grateful for. I ended up having a very positive experience because of them.”

THE INNOVATION CHALLENGE

“[Regis has] an innovation competition, and I was able to enroll and participate just like anybody going through the on-campus experience. I was working with a few other gentlemen who were interested in bringing a gaming company to market. We were building up a Kickstarter and we used the innovation competition to test out our pitch, see how it would land and figure out where we would need to level up the product. We got to see how a room of customers we had never engaged with would respond to that. We got a lot of great feedback, and it was a great experience all around.”

THE POWER OF A CATHOLIC LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION

“I’m very bullish on Catholic liberal arts schools because of the focus on the whole: the whole person, the whole environment. Being a multidisciplinary thinker has been a tremendous advantage in the workforce and otherwise. That was a major part of my decision to go to Regis. I felt like a Jesuit Catholic liberal arts school would be a great place to spend my graduate studies and I have no regrets.”

Get Down to Business with Regis University

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Using Consumer Psychology to Combat Climate Change [Eco-Marketing Insights] https://www.ama.org/2019/12/04/fish-monkey-brains-and-climate-change-marketing-toward-sustainable-behavior/ Wed, 04 Dec 2019 20:31:52 +0000 https://www.ama.org/?p=25681 A fresh take on a marketing study explains how hacking our brains psychologically can help in the fight for environmental sustainability.

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An installment of the Student Perspectives blog series

At the top of his commencement speech delivered to the graduating class of Kenyon College in 2005, writer David Foster Wallace proposed a parable: Two young fish are swimming along when they happen by an older fish, who says to them, “Morning boys, how’s the water?” The two fish continue swimming, and eventually one of them asks, “What the hell is water?” The point of the allegory, in Wallace’s words, is that “the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.” Our world is dying. The Amazon is on fire, glaciers are melting and releasing record levels of methane into the atmosphere, and our oceans are turning into vats of acid. Yet our culture, entrenched in consumerism, remains willfully ignorant of the water around us.

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Climate change is a nebulous, temporal issue: the results of our actions won’t come to fruition for generations to come. How can we lead billions of us monkey-brained humans, who are hard-wired to enjoy the fruits of instant gratification, into a global shift of behavior? One possible answer is not to have the wise older fish educate us on what water is, but rather to leverage our monkey brains psychologically via marketing strategies into sustainable behaviors.

Researchers Katherine White, Rishad Habib, and David J. Hardisty have worked to compile and synthesize the behavioral science literature that relates to facilitating consumer’s behavior in engaging in sustainable behaviors. They published their work in the Journal of Marketing in 2019 under the title “How to SHIFT Consumer Behaviors to be More Sustainable: A Literature Review and Guiding Framework.” They categorized their findings under “five broad psychological routes to encouraging sustainable consumer behavior change”: Social influence, Habit formation, Feelings and cognition, and Tangibility (SHIFT). The researchers suggest that consumers are more likely to engage in pro-environmental behavior when psychologically leveraged by these factors.  

Employing the SHIFT framework may not only encourage consumers to engage in pro-environmental behavior; “businesses able to adapt to the demands of our changing world, including the urgent demand for sustainability, will be more likely to thrive in the long term.” In other words, the researchers argue adopting the SHIFT framework and encouraging sustainable behavior is strategic environmentally and economically. Here’s how.

Our behavior is unconsciously dominated by social factors; White, Habib, and Hardesty suggest that “social factors are one of the most influential factors in terms of affecting sustainable consumer behavior change.” For example, men may not engage in environmentally conscious behavior because they associate those actions with feminine traits. On the flip side, if a community leader engages in environmentally conscious behavior, such as installing solar panels on their roof, their community is more likely to follow suit. Additionally, the authors state: “Consumers are more likely to act in a socially desirable manner in public contexts in which people can observe and evaluate their actions.” By utilizing these psychological factors, marketers can leverage consumer behavior to be more environmentally conscious. Tag lines such as “Your neighbors are installing solar panels; are you?” or “Real men recycle” are effective tools to socially leverage consumer behavior to be more sustainable.

Some sustainable behaviors are described as “one-time actions,” such as installing solar panels. However, many other sustainable behaviors require repeated actions, such as taking efficient showers. This idea represents the “habit formation” factor in the SHIFT framework and is one of the most difficult factors to leverage into pro-environmental behavior. This is because many facets of climate change are exacerbated by habits that are deeply entrenched in our culture: driving, resource use, energy use, disposal of products, and more.

The researchers propose several different routes to leverage habit formation into pro-environmental behavior. “Discontinuity to change bad habits” refers to the introduction of roadblocks that make it difficult to engage in environmentally detrimental habits. They introduce the habit discontinuity hypothesis, which suggests that “if the context in which habits arise changes in some way, it becomes difficult to carry out the usual habits that would occur.” This could mean an introduction of tariffs, taxes, or fines on products and activities that are unsustainable. However, this type of negative reinforcement can backfire and trigger a self-defense response in which consumers push back on the roadblocks in their way. Therefore, it is often more effective to introduce positive reinforcement to leverage habit formation into sustainable behavior.

Incentives can increase desired behaviors and positive habit formation. This could mean monetary incentives such as rebates, tiered pricing, rewards, discounts, or gifts. Or, it could mean something as simple as a prompt: a message that appears before the consumer engages in a specific behavior that reminds the consumer what the sustainable behavior is. An example of this is the “number of plastic water bottles saved” counter on the water refilling stations.

The habits that are detrimental to the environment are deeply entrenched in our culture, society, and identity. Therefore, the authors note that an important psychological factor is the individual self: “Individuals desire to maintain positive self-views and can reaffirm the positivity of the self-concept through consumption.” In other words, we monkey-brained humans strive to justify a positive self-view. Thus, when a person discovers their behaviors have a negative environmental impact, a self-defense mechanism is triggered, and they push back to maintain a positive self-view.

A study conducted by P. Sol Hart and Erik C. Nisbet, published in 2011, explores how partisan identity can be so strong that it usurps all logical and scientific reasoning. In their experiment, they exposed 240 adults to “simulated news stories about possible climate change health impacts” and discovered that “the influence of message exposure on support for climate mitigation was contingent upon political partisanship.” That is, the part of their self that identified with their political party took priority over the part that interpreted the dangers of climate change. For this reason, it is important to consider the individual self when communicating climate change impacts. One strategy White, Habib, and Hardesty propose is to buffer against self-threatening information and positively associate pro-environmental behavior with an endorsement of self-values.

Next in the SHIFT framework are feelings and cognition. White, Habib, and Hardesty group these concepts together because consumers tend to employ action driven by either affect or cognition. In other words, consumer behavior is most often dictated by either emotion or logic. The researchers explore negative emotions such as fear, sadness, and guilt as emotional appeals towards climate change communications, and positive emotions such as pride, “warm glow” feelings, and an affinity toward nature. In general, they discovered that appeals to emotion have positive behavioral changes in the short term, but they often dissipate in the long term as they tend to make the consequences feel “uncertain” and “temporally distant.”

While emotional appeals can be affective, it is just as important to present concrete information to the consumer. The authors note that “one is unlikely to engage in more deliberate forms of sustainable behavior change if one is not informed about the problem”. Illustrating why and how the desired behavior is sustainable is necessary to combat misinformation and motivate long-term behavioral change. This can be employed via “eco-labeling”: labeling products with “attention grabbing, easily understandable, and consistent” taglines that promote sustainable behaviors and products. Additionally, the researchers propose framing the information in the most affective way. They state that “consumers care more about future losses than about future gains” and therefore the information should be framed under potential losses, such as energy costs, as opposed to potential gains, such as energy savings.

The final strategy is appealing to the concept of tangibility. Climate change is a temporal problem, and the outcomes of sustainable behavior are abstract—unrelated to the self. Furthermore, environmental outcomes are difficult to measure and slow in nature, which makes the problem feel far off. A way to circumvent this unique issue is to localize the impacts of sustainable behavior, reducing the immediate consequences to a given city, neighborhood, or region. This will make the issue more personalized and motivate the consumer to engage in sustainable behavior. Another method to make climate change more tangible is to emphasize personal experiences with the impacts. This could mean referencing personalized issues, such as extreme weather events, the amount of litter on your street, or the cost of gas.

[Climate change] is such a large and complex issue that it needs to be tackled from multiple angles – political, business, individual consumers, etc.

Katherine White, lead author of “How to SHIFT Consumer Behaviors to Be More Sustainable: A Literature Review and Guiding Framework”

Individual behavior is just one facet of the monumental crisis of climate change, is a global shift in behavior ultimately going to make a difference? I asked Katherine White, one of the authors of “SHIFT,” to comment on the role of individual behavior versus the factors that are out of the average person’s control. She stated, “This is such a large and complex issue that it needs to be tackled from multiple angles – political, business, individual consumers, etc.” Furthermore, I asked to what role do marketers have in the fight against climate change? Katherine White argued that marketers and business “should consider the consequences of what types of behaviors they are encouraging” and they should promote “products with more circular lifecycles.” While individual behavior is only a part of the issue, it is necessary that marketers, business owners, and consumers take responsibility to promote positive sustainability.

So, what’s the end to the fish story? Do the fish continue to live out their days completely ignorant of the water? Probably. It is impossible to be fully conscious of the water 100% of the time, even if you are peripherally aware of it. The sad truth is that our behavior is not always driven by rationality; it is inevitable that we will fall back on our monkey-brained default setting. This is why we need to be checked and leveraged psychologically as consumers. It is simply too easy to buy a cup of coffee instead of making it at home, or to drive instead of taking the train, or to take a long shower, etc. However, this also means that it is possible to make it just as easy to do the opposite and engage in sustainable behavior; it just has to be encouraged and psychologically leveraged by policies, positive business practices, and society.

Works Cited

Best English Speeches (2019), “Learn English | David Foster Wallace, ‘This is Water’” (with BIG Subtitles) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms2BvRbjOYo

Hart, P. S., and Nisbet, E. C. (2012), “Boomerang Effects in Science Communication: How Motivated Reasoning and Identity Cues Amplify Opinion Polarization About Climate Mitigation Policies,” Communication Research, 39 (6), 701–723. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650211416646

White, K., Habib, R., and Hardisty, D. J. (2019), “How to SHIFT Consumer Behaviors to be More Sustainable: A Literature Review and Guiding Framework,” Journal of Marketing, 83 (3), 22–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022242919825649

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High Priorities in Higher Ed Marketing https://www.ama.org/marketing-news/high-priorities-in-higher-ed-marketing/ Mon, 30 Sep 2019 17:20:10 +0000 https://www.ama.org/?post_type=ama_marketing_news&p=22550 Higher education consultant Rachel Reuben breaks down her day-one college marketing agenda.

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Higher education consultant Rachel Reuben breaks down her day-one college marketing agenda

Rachel Reuben has stayed one step ahead of digital trends in higher education marketing throughout her 20-plus-year career. Her first position in higher ed was at the State University of New York at New Paltz, where she was hired in 1998 as a web editor—the first web-focused employee at the school. Websites were sparse, and even when colleges had one, they were only populated with pieces that had already run in print publications. She convinced her superiors to form a web team dedicated to marketing, which she led. More than a decade ago, she shifted her powers of persuasion to social media, focusing her MBA on how higher ed institutions can benefit from the platforms. Reuben outlined how both Facebook and Twitter could be valuable tools, even in their infancy.

These days, Reuben serves higher ed beyond digital, working as a consultant who provides interim marketing support when schools are between hires. She also offers strategic counsel to marketing teams in social media, organizational structure, budgeting and recruitment.

The nature of her work finds Reuben popping into colleges and universities both big and small, public and private, online and brick-and-mortar. Marketing News spoke with Reuben about her breadth of knowledge on higher ed marketing priorities, barriers to recruitment and why Facebook isn’t the proper channel to reach teens.

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What are some of the most substantial changes you’ve noticed in higher ed marketing?

So many schools are tightening their belts—the ones that I’ve been working with, at least. And there are changes in [required] skill sets. [Schools] really need to diversify their marketing staff to bring in a strong group of people that have varying skill sets than what was needed 10 years or even five years ago. You really need more in-house digital marketing experts and people who can wear a number of different hats depending on the size of the school. I’ve been noticing a lot of change in staffing, especially.

Have there been any changes as to whom colleges are recruiting? Non-traditional students, part-time students, etc.?

I don’t think I’ve seen a shift with an individual school that I’ve worked with to say that we’re recruiting different types of students. The only thing I can say is that a number of schools I’ve worked with are really trying to recruit internationally—especially from China—and we’re having so many issues with getting visa approval. [So much so] that many schools are saying, “We better diversify our international audience by not putting all of our eggs inside China’s basket.”

How do you think schools can best leverage social media these days?

It’s tricky. We’ve got hundreds of thousands of people following [schools] on Facebook, but different colleges have so many different audiences, especially the huge colleges. They have current students that follow the page, they have alumni, parents, fans of their athletic teams—all these different people.

So how do you create content, not only on Facebook but all their social channels, that’s relevant? It’s getting noisier than ever, and it’s hard to really figure out where your audience is. It’s about looking at insights and analytics that are available to see who is actually the demographic of the people that are actively engaging with your content. Broadly speaking, I think eMarketer and Pew Research are both saying that Facebook is dead for undergraduate prospective students. If you’re using Facebook at all for content, [you should target] the influencers, like their parents, guidance counselors and other counselor-type people that may be in their life [helping with] college prep. But the undergrad prospective students that are 16-18 years old right now think Facebook is for old people.

Let’s say you’ve just started a job in higher ed marketing. What should you do on day one?

The first thing is getting your hands on the college’s strategic plan, assuming there is one. It’s about how the college is going to sustain itself over the next four to five years, or whatever time period it’s developed for, and what things they want to do academically. The second thing would be working with admissions or enrollment management to look at what the data shows are the seller programs that they’ve got plenty of applications for and still have capacity for—or other programs that are not hitting the capacity. It’s impossible for most schools to advertise . . . everything within their college, so it’s really about setting up a small number of priorities for the year. These three or four programs are going to get the most marketing and advertising attention for the college for the year, and see how that moves the needle.

If you’re stepping in at the VP level, get job descriptions and the organization chart for everybody on the team to start the assessment of: Do you have the right positions? Do you have the right people in the right spots? Do you have people that have other skills that are not being tapped into that could be? That’s always part of building your foundation. You need a strong team to be able to support all these different goals and strategies.

What factors make for a strong higher ed marketing team?

Collaboration and collegiality, absolutely working together. In the older days of higher ed marketing, groups were siphoned off by media, so the digital or web team with one team, the print team with another. We need more than ever to have a true integrated marketing function. They all have to work together, projects should overlap and resources from all the different teams should come together. I’ve worked with many schools to break down the silos [that have] existed for many years.

What’s next for higher ed marketing?

We’ve been saying this for many years, so it seems crazy, but I’m still going to schools where there isn’t a real tracking of return on investment. All the things they’re doing, all the marketing wheels that are spinning . . . are they a value? Are they moving the needle? Are they [attracting] the kinds of students that they want? Are they filling the classes? There are so many different key performance indicators, [but] who is tracking all of that? There’s so much data that marketers need access to that they often don’t because of politics; in colleges, institutional research may not share, or admissions may not share. It would help inform future marketing efforts so much more, and help determine, “OK, well, this [aspect] is not worth our effort—we spent hundreds of hours on it and we’re not going to do that again.”

Your website says that you “believe in the power of higher education and the profound effect it has on the lives of students and by extension the global community.” Can you further articulate that?

It’s a personal thing for me. When I went to college, I had to pay for it completely myself—I wasn’t educated about loans, so I had to work full time to pay my way through college. I knew how critical it was to be able to finish and have a degree. I know how much it impacted my life. Therefore, I love being in higher education because of it. I know when we’re working with budgets, we’re ultimately working with tuition dollars someone like me worked very hard for in many cases. Or they took out a gigantic loan that they are going to pay [back] for a zillion years. I always want to be a good steward of those tuition dollars.

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How to Use Social Media to Find Your Next Job https://www.ama.org/marketing-news/how-to-use-social-media-to-find-your-next-job/ Wed, 14 Nov 2018 16:46:33 +0000 https://www.ama.org/?post_type=ama_marketing_news&p=720 Job hunting is a digital process, and social media is a tool both recruiters and candidates are using to find the right opportunities. Take these steps to make the most of your social media presence to find and land your next job.

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As a job seeker, there are so many avenues to start your job search. You can opt for traditional job boards such as CareerBuilder and Indeed; you can tap your network or attend events and conferences to broaden your reach; or you can turn to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, which are increasing in popularity among job seekers.

If you find yourself perusing jobs on LinkedIn or using Glassdoor to screen companies before applying, here are some tips to focus your job search using social media.

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Determine Your Goal

Social media can be a time suck. We’ve all gone on LinkedIn to do one thing and found that 20 minutes has gone by without even accomplishing the task we set out to do. Don’t make this mistake. Ask yourself, “What’s my goal in using social media in my job search?” Is it to find open positions? Is it to create a target list of companies you are going to apply to? Is it to research more about companies you are interviewing with?

Do Your Research

Once you know your goal, it’s time to research. If you want to use social media to find job postings, find out what channels employers are posting jobs on. LinkedIn has an extensive job board that many employers are taking advantage of, which might be a good place to start. Facebook has a new job board. Instagram and Pinterest may be the right avenue to identify new opportunities. It depends on your industry and the position you are looking for. Make sure you know where you should be investing your time.

If your goal is to learn more about organizations before applying or to increase your knowledge before an interview, Glassdoor is a great tool. Glassdoor displays feedback from current and former employees and what they consider to be the pros and cons of the company. Keep in mind, what one person gripes about on social media might be something that you find valuable and important in an organization.

Ask Yourself if an Opportunity Makes Sense for You

Depending on your level of social savvy, certain channels may not make sense for you to activate your job search. Use your knowledge to your advantage. If a platform feels clunky, or you question your knowledge on how to navigate all the nuances of it—or you don’t have a presence there yet—you probably won’t end up using it as effectively or keeping it updated. Don’t force it.

Do a Pre-Mortem

The odds are high that if you apply to a position via social media, the potential employer will screen your profile, so take a pre-mortem. Peruse your online profiles. Google yourself to see what comes up. Does it present you in the best light and make a strong argument for why you are the right candidate for the role? Is there anything that might cause a future employer to screen out your application? If so, fix the problem, or scrap that channel as part of your job search.

Plan

Create a plan for exactly how you are going to spend your time on social media. If you are creating a well-rounded social media job search strategy, you can break your time into a few areas. I recommend setting aside time for each of these activities:

  1. Build your profile. Make sure all your information is up to date. Complete any missing information. Scrub any irrelevant information or anything that portrays you in a bad light.
  2. Share relevant information. Show you are a thought leader in the space. If you write and blog frequently, share that. If you don’t, find articles that are relevant to your industry or your role, and share and comment on those to show your expertise.
  3. Tap your network. Set a goal for how many new connections you want to make and how many current connections you want to reach out to. Research where they work and who they are connected with. Does it make sense to ask them for an informational interview or an introduction to someone in their network?
  4. Research companies. Social media offers great insight into what a day in the life of an organization looks like. Take advantage of it. Make a short list of companies where you want to work. Then, cater your application, cover letter or introductory e-mail to explain what you know, why you would be a strong addition and how you can add value immediately.

Analyze

You may not see results immediately, but you need to be asking yourself, “Is it working?” Are you following the plan you laid out, or are you getting sucked into the social vacuum and losing focus? Are the social media channels you are using helping you achieve the goal you set out in the first place? If the answer is, “No,” you may need to revisit your research and see if you are using the most effective channel. If the answer is, “Yes,” rinse and repeat.

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Making Research in Business Have More Impact: A Relational Engagement Approach https://www.ama.org/2017/09/27/making-research-in-business-have-more-impact-a-relational-engagement-approach/ Wed, 27 Sep 2017 19:42:37 +0000 https://www.ama.org/?p=784 Authors Julie Ozanne and Brennan Davis discuss the disconnect between academic research and its impact on society. They explore the benefits of the "Relational Engagement Approach" and highlight three direct outputs of this process that are mutually beneficial for both researchers and end users: productive interactions, enhanced capacities, and improved social networks.

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Universities are frequently viewed as ivory towers, where academics are removed from the realities of everyday life. But business is an applied field, and business schools have long been concerned about solving real-world problems. For example, as educators, we have mutually benefited by engaging with both industry and local communities to provide our students with classroom experiences that help prepare them to solve the problems they will face in industry.

​​Aligning Academic Research with Societal Impact​

It is no surprise, then, that university administrators are increasingly asking academic researchers to approach their research in a similar way. They want to encourage research that has a greater impact on business and society, as significant financial and human capital is invested in doing this research. As the international accreditation body, Association to Advance ​Collegiate Schools of Business​, reports, “Intellectual contributions impact society both by advancing management knowledge and practice and by addressing important policy questions. What appears to be missing is a mechanism for connecting the dots between research on managerial or corporate processes and processes affecting organizational competitiveness and societal well-being.”1

To align business academic research with the call for more externally impactful work, we propose that business academic research should focus on four distinct steps in the process of yielding societal benefit: ​

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  1. The creation and publication of research findings
  2. The awareness of these findings
  3. The use of the findings
  4. The potential benefits to society when these findings are successfully implemented

It is likely that academic researchers will implicitly agree to participate in the parts of this process over which they have direct control—namely, creating and promoting good research. But they may bristle at the idea of being held accountable for the indirect use of their research findings to enhance business and society.

The Science of Social Impact Assessment

The science of social impact assessment is nascent. Traditional approaches to measuring the influence of academic research focus on holding professors accountable for the number of academic papers they publish, the prestige of the journals in which they publish, their citation counts, and/or their media mentions. These measures are quantifiable and easily available, which explains why they are widely used. But clearly these metrics are focusing on the first two steps—creation and awareness—of what is a larger process of social change. We certainly hope that our own research findings become not only known but also used and potentially benefit groups in society. Yet it does not seem fair to hold academics accountable for the entire process of social change that can span years and over which they have limited control.

The Relational Engagement Approach

Instead, we advocate for a middle-ground position, where some researchers nudge the production of knowledge toward greater societal relevancy by including key constituencies in the research process. Specifically, consider the “relational engagement” research approach, where academics collaborate more actively with nonacademic stakeholders and work to co-create before, during, and after research is completed. Not only will such a process yield findings that better balance relevance against rigor, but additional benefits will present themselves that do not arise in traditional approaches to doing research.

In our forthcoming article in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing​, we highlight the generative potential of the relational engagement approach across the entire social impact process and provide examples of researchers who are already experimenting with variants of this approach. But here we highlight three direct outputs of the relational engagement process that are mutually beneficial for both researchers and end users: productive interactions, enhanced capacities, and improved social networks.

Productive interactions

First, a relational engagement approach is based on the assumption that researcher and user interactions are more productive when stakeholder exchanges increase the rigor and relevance of the research. Knowledge does not flow down from the researcher to the user but arises in a complex and multidirectional co-learning process. A relational engagement approach recognizes the dynamic and value-laden terrain of social problems and incorporates these insights directly and indirectly into the research process.

Enhanced capacities

Second, when researchers and external stakeholders work together closely, they are more likely to develop a range of enhanced capacities. A researcher might share a new analytical tool or contribute a broader perspective given their experience across diverse research contexts. The external stakeholder may have key local knowledge about a setting or a phenomenon upon which the success of an intervention may rest. Collaborators with boots on the ground are more likely to be abreast of timely and unfolding new issues.

Improved social networks

Third, a relational engagement approach involves collaboration and is more likely than traditional research approaches to build important social networks with stakeholders. The resulting network effects include creating new contacts, reinforcing social bonds, increasing the two-way exchange of information, building trust, and developing a sense of solidarity. When a network of different people with varied capacities all mobilize around solving a specific problem, it is more likely that a solution will emerge than when academic researchers work alone. A persistent finding is that multidisciplinary research teams are more likely to generate findings with societal benefit; this is due, in part, to the diverse perspectives and tools that are brought to bear. Similarly, alliances among researchers and users are likely to benefit from a broader perspective. And when innovations do arise, a social network already exists through which new ideas can disseminate.

The United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, a nationwide experiment on evaluating the societal impact of research is well underway.2 This exercise in trying to evaluate the impact of research illuminates the significant challenges and the infeasibility of a one-size-fits-all solution. Across all university fields, an analysis of the 6,679 impact cases found a three- to nine-year time lag among those highlighted as the best cases. This analysis also revealed an astonishing 3,709 different pathways for how research findings can generate a societal benefit.3 These findings suggest that both university administrators and professors should work to foster institutional frameworks and resources that provide flexibility and can foster the manifold creative pathways by which research findings can yield societal benefit.


AACSB International (2008), “Final Report of the AACSB International Impact of Research Task Force,” p. 23 (accessed July 21, 2016), [available at ​http://www.aacsb.edu/~/media/AACSB/Publications/research-reports/impact-of-research.ashx].

Research Excellence Framework (2014), “Results and Submissions,” (accessed September 3, 2014), [available at http://results.ref.ac.uk/].

HEFCE (2015), “The Nature, Scale and Beneficiaries of Research Impact: An Initial Analysis of Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 Impact Case Studies,” research report, (accessed February 2, 2015), [available at: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/media/HEFCE,2014/Content/Pubs/Independentresearch/2015/Analysis,of,REF,impact/Analysis_of_REF_impact.pdf].​


​Julie L. Ozanne, Brennan Davis, Jeff B. Murray, Sonya Grier, Ahmed Benmecheddal, Hilary Downey, Akon E. Ekpo, Marion Garnier, Joel Hietanen, Marine Le Gall-Ely, Anastasia Seregina, Kevin D. Thomas, and Ekant Veer (2016), “Assessing the Societal Impact of Research: The Relational Engagement Approach.” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, In-Press. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1509/jppm.14.121

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